On Feb 10, 4:06 am, Quentin Anciaux <allco...@gmail.com> wrote: > 2012/2/9 Craig Weinberg <whatsons...@gmail.com> > > > On Feb 9, 9:49 am, Quentin Anciaux <allco...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > 2012/2/9 Craig Weinberg <whatsons...@gmail.com> > > > > > > > How does a gear or lever have an opinion? > > > > > > The problems with gears and levers is dumbness. > > > > > Does putting a billion gears and levers together in an arrangement > > > > make them less dumb? Does it start having opinions at some point? > > > > Does putting a billions neurons together in an arrangement make them less > > > dumb ? Does it start having opinions at some point ? > > > No, because neurons are living organisms in the first place, not > > gears. > > At which point does it start having an opinions ?
At every point when it is alive. We may not call them opinions because we use that word to refer to an entire human being's experience, but the point is that being a living cell makes it capable of having different capacities than it does as a dead cell. When it is dead, there is no biological sense going on, only chemical detection- reaction, which is time reversible. Biological sense isn't time reversible. > Why simulated neurons > couldn't have opinions at that same point ? Vitalism ? No, because there is no such thing as absolute simulation, there is only imitation. Simulation is an imitation designed to invite us to mistake it for genuine - which is adequate for things we don't care about much, but awareness cannot be a mistake. It is the absolute primary orientation, so it cannot ever be substituted. If you make synthetic neurons which are very close to natural neurons on every level, then you have a better chance of coming close enough that the resulting organism is very similar to the original. A simulation which is not made of something that forms a cell by itself (an actual cell, not a virtual sculpture of a cell) probably has no possibility of graduating from time reversible detection-reaction to other categories of sense, feeling, awareness, perception, and consciousness, just as a CGI picture of a neuron has no chance of producing milliliters of actual serotonin, acetylcholine, glutamate,etc. Craig -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
